Sermon for June 5, 2011

         Scripture: Acts 1:6-14, 1 Peter 4:           12-14, 5:6-11, John 17:1-11

“Justice” Rev. Christopher Fazel

I have a photograph of my seventh grade Sunday School class.  And I look at it quite often.    One of my favorite games is challenging people to find 12-year-old Chris Fazel, in the sea of dark suits, pencil ties, and white socks. 

I also have a photograph of my 20 year class reunion, of my graduating class of Perry High school.  And, of course, many of the same people appear in both photographs.  And comparing the two pictures provokes in me a deep sense of wonder and awe.  There's something about the passage of time, and the different roads that people take, that always leaves me pensive. 

Now, I'd have to say, that as I review the lives of those early friends and classmates, I don't find a lot of surprises.  Much of what we become is already in full development by the time we're twelve or thirteen.  But there are some stories in those pictures that give a person pause.  There's Mike Blaznin, who's practically sitting right next to me in Sunday School, but who does not appear in the class reunion photo, because he died in his early twenties, in a plane crash, as he served as a test pilot for the United States Air Force. 

And then there's Gwen Miller -- was one of the sweetest person's that ever lived.  She appears in both pictures, but she won't appear in the next one, because she has died of a rare cancer.  And I could go on and on.  But my point is simply that as I review the life experiences of myself and of those whom I have known throughout my life, I am provoked into asking the big question -- "Why?"  Why do some live long and prosper, while others die young or suffer long?  Where is the justice in this world?  And, of course, the short answer is, too often, there isn't any.

Why were we born into a land of bounty and opportunity, while others are born into poverty and oppression?  We have no answer.   Or more accurately, we have a whole range of answers, none of which are adequate.  We could say that God loves us more than the others.  The greater blessings that we enjoy are the evidence that God loves us more.  But there are problems with that answer.  First of all, if we hold to such a view, what will we then say when misfortune finally knocks on our door?  Is it then God's punishment for our wickedness?   Is our misfortune evidence that God no longer loves us as much?  And what about all our Biblical injunctions for us to look after the less fortunate?  What about those warnings that as we do unto the least among us we do unto the very Christ whom we worship?

Another answer to the plague of injustice that parades before us every day is simply to give up looking for justice.   We can espouse the position that the universe is morally blind, and there is no God of justice.  We can side with Friedrich Nietzsche who said that the purpose of life is to win and conquer.  The cry for justice is simply the complaint of life's losers.  And we needn't care about them.

The problems with this answer are too many to count.  First of all, it offends us to the core.  History teaches that human beings need a sense of justice in the world.  Throughout history, people have willingly suffered and died for the cause of justice.  And simply because we have so far failed to establish justice throughout the world, does not erase the fact that the need for justice is as deeply rooted in the human being as the need for food and air.  The very fact that human beings need it is the very best evidence that justice exists.  We wouldn't need something that has never existed.

Beyond that, as people of faith, who claim adoption to the God of Jesus Christ, we cannot ignore the fact that our entire faith tradition is based on a belief in a God of justice and mercy.  Just as it says in our psalm today, "As wax melts before the fire, let the wicked perish before God.  But let the righteous be joyful; let them be jubilant with joy."  From cover to cover, our Bible affirms the reality of a God who desires justice for all.  But here we come full circle.  For if we claim the God of justice as our God -- as the one and only God, then what do we do with that pesky awareness of ours, that true justice in this world seems desperately hard to find?

Well, our Bible itself grapples with this problem mightily.  And studying the Bible as a whole, and our texts for this Sunday in particular, I believe that the problem of justice is answered for us, not in the way of an explanation, but in an assignment and three promises. 

The assignment for all of us who take on the discipline of following in the way of the Christ -- all of us who choose to be disciples -- the assignment is to make justice happen -- within our own hearts and minds, within our immediate relationships, within our local communities, within our nation, within our world.  The task of making justice happen, has been given to us.  We don't look up to heaven for it to come out of the sky.  As it says in Acts, as the apostles watched Christ ascending into heaven, the angels appeared and said to them, "Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?"  In other words, "You've got work to do, get busy."  We are assigned to make justice happen as well as we are able. 

Now, justice isn't just a matter of punishing the bad guys.  Justice means healing the sick, comforting those who mourn, sharing the wealth, encouraging the disheartened.  In short, we are to cultivate the spirit of Christ in our world, through our words, our deeds, our thoughts.  That's the assignment. 

Now, the first promise is this:  If you really do that, you will suffer for it.  Now, that's a heck of a promise isn't it!   But that's the first one.  It's the way things are in this world.  If you try to promote justice and fairness, the forces of oppression and unfair advantage will declare war on you, and you will suffer for the cause. 

Now, let's get something straight.  In this world, there's plenty of suffering to go around.  Everyone gets a piece of it, regardless of whether one is championing justice or not.  As the Buddha said, "Life is sorrowful."   There's illness, and death, and taxes, and relatives.   The question isn't how to avoid suffering.  The question is how do you make all of life -- the joyful and the sorrowful -- full of purpose?  And the Christian answer is, "all that we have and all that we are is dedicated to the purposes of God, as revealed in Christ."

And that takes us to the second promise.  In all of our lectionary readings today, Christ promises you and me, that if we truly learn to live for Christ in all that we think, say, and do, we will be empowered as from on high.  In the Acts passage that we just read, the apostles ask Jesus when justice will finally be established, and he says simply, "That's not for you to know.  But, the good news is, "...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.  And you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth."  And in the epistle, Peter tells us that when we live for Christ, even in our suffering, the Spirit of God rests upon us.  And in the gospel, Jesus says in his prayer, that true dedication to Christ is nothing less than eternal life.   And that takes us to the third promise.  And it is this.

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